Seat of empire: New York, Philadelphia, and the emergence of an American metropolis, 1776--1837 (Pennsylvania)

New York's rise to pre-eminence among American cities was an important development that was neither inevitable nor predictable. At the time of the Revolution, Philadelphia was the leading American city; its residents as well as others generally expected it to take on more of a metropolitan role as the nation became independent, and prepared the city for that role. Instead, Philadelphia slid into second place. By 1807, New York was the acknowledged commercial capital of the nation, by 1837, it was clearly the American metropolis.; New York displaced Philadelphia not by being the most profitable city, but by being the most useful to those outside the city. As the American economy integrated for the first time in the 1790s, Philadelphia's merchants were more heavily invested in the international neutral carrying trade, while New Yorkers more eagerly provided services to American merchants and planters across the country. As a result, the various parts of the new national economy came into contact in Manhattan, and that island became the nation's central point. Although Philadelphia's rapid adoption of manufacturing was also profitable, it was not so tied to an urban location as New York's commercial functions. Further, Gotham's commerce attracted other city-building factors, most notably immigration, which drove the city's explosive growth through the middle and late nineteenth century.; The experience of New York and Philadelphia suggests several things. First, urban pre-eminence is not about size or profit, but rather about function within an economy. Second, the metropolitan function is not ultimately dependent on wealth or population, but rather the metropolitan function attracts those qualities, which then reinforce the city's advantage. Third, changes in economic integration in the broader economy can significantly alter the fortunes of cities. The loosely integrated United States of the 1780s looked to Philadelphia for its few metropolitan needs; as the economy became more integrated and these needs grew, it was New York that provided them better and thus benefited from American nationhood. This has significant implications for the future of cities in a globalizing economy; as new economic units form, some cities may gain or lose relative stature.